jocund

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for June 16, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>jocund</strong> &#149; \JAH-kund\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> marked by or suggestive of high spirits and lively mirthfulness</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"'Get drunk … on words!' proclaims this pub crawl/reading event: More than 80 writers will take over some 35 Capitol Hill and First Hill venues (mostly bars, as well as places like Elliott Bay Book Company and the Frye Art Museum) to knock back a few and present their own work to increasingly <em>jocund</em> crowds." — <a href="https://www.seattlemag.com/arts-culture/17-best-things-do-seattle-october-2019">Gavin Borchert, <em>The Seattle (Washington) Magazine</em>, October 2019</a></p> <p>"Clearly in a <em>jocund</em> mood after Tuesday's program of Nordic folk songs, the Danish String Quartet arrived at Campbell Hall on Wednesday, February 14, poised to enter fully into the music of two of their greatest national composers, Hans Abrahamsen and Carl Nielsen." — <a href="https://www.independent.com/2019/02/20/danish-string-quartet-ucsb-2/">Charles Donelan, <em>The Santa Barbara (California) Independent</em>, 20 Feb. 2019</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Don't let the etymology of <em>jocund</em> play tricks on you. The word comes from <em>jucundus</em>, a Latin word meaning "agreeable" or "delightful," and ultimately from the Latin verb <em>juvare</em>, meaning "to help." But <em>jucundus</em> looks and sounds a bit like <em>jocus</em>, the Latin word for "joke." These two roots took a lively romp through many centuries together and along the way the lighthearted <em>jocus</em> influenced the spelling and meaning of <em>jucundus</em>, an interaction that eventually resulted in our modern English word <em>jocund</em> in the 14th century.</p> <br /><br /> </p> </f